Datsun was the name Nissan used before it became Nissan. Nissan was the parent company of Datsun, and in the late 1970s on some models, Datsun started using the Nissan name on the car to eventually phase the name in once it was decided that the Datsun name would be dropped. The newly introduced 1982 Nissan Sentra (replacing the outgoing 210 model) was the first Nissan model that would actually be known primarily as a Nissan instead of a Datsun, even though it still sported a small Datsun badge.